


FlashFire Valentine's Day

by DeckofDragons



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Anxiety, Fear of Rejection, Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day Card, valentine's day fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 02:59:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Pyro wants to ask Scout to be his Valentine but is nervous about it.





	FlashFire Valentine's Day

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! <3

“Are you going to ask Miss Pauling to be your Valentine?”

“What?” Scout asked, looking up from his cards at Pyro sitting across from him. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

Everyone else had left the common room so it was just the two of them now, meaning it was a good time to ask but of course Pyro’s nervousness made it hard to understand him. Did he dare repeat himself though? What if Scout didn’t appreciate him prying? What if… Scout said ‘yes’, he _was_ planning on asking Miss Pauling to be his Valentine? But that couldn’t be known for sure unless Pyro asked.

“Are you going to ask Miss Pauling to be your Valentine?” he repeated, forcing himself to enunciate despite the fact that the answer _had_ to be ‘yes’, right?

“Oh uh… probably not,” was what Scout said instead. “I really like her, I do but I thought about it a lot a little while ago and… she’s busy all the time with work stuff. So even if she said ‘yes’ and we started dating, that’d be nice and all but we still wouldn’t ever really see each other much, you know? When I get a partner, I’d want to spend time with them, I don’t think it’d really work for me otherwise. Why?”

“Just curious.” Pyro shrugged as he played his card. That didn’t mean he had a chance, did it? Scout used to be _afraid_ of him, there was no way he could now be interested in him as a potential partner, right? And… he liked pretty people, like Miss Pauling and the people he said were hot on the magazine covers they sometimes looked at together when they went into town, he didn’t know what Pyro looked like and thus couldn’t be attracted to him, right?

Not to mention everyone thought of Pyro as an ‘insane pyromaniac’. He _wasn’t_ insane though, was he? The pink happy place filled with rainbows could be just as real as the ‘real’ world, and the _true_ colour of fire _could_ be all the colours of the rainbow, they didn’t know for sure, neither did Pyro. And even if it _wasn’t_ real, it was fine for him to enjoy it anyway no matter what anyone else said about it. Back when Scout had been afraid of him though, he’d been one of the people to label Pyro in that way, it’s part of _why_ he’d been afraid. They were friends now, _good_ friends, but… would Scout ever even consider dating someone he thought was insane? It probably wasn’t likely. So, Pyro had slim chances with him at best.

Romantic feelings _sucked_. Why did Pyro have to feel this way? It’d be easier to love Scout as a friend instead. He couldn’t change how he felt though unfortunately.

“You okay buddy?” Scout asked. “You seem a bit lost in thought, something up?”

Pyro shrugged again, not saying anything. He went back to trying to focus on their card game. It was Uno, simple and enjoyable but… his train of thought had run over any enjoyment he’d been having with it, killing it completely. He didn’t want to play anymore, he wanted to go out and set something ablaze and let the rainbows transport him to the happy place.

He folded his cards on the table, the universal sign of conceding defeat. He stood and was about to leave but Scout stood too, blocking his way.

“What’s wrong?” he said.

The only response Pyro was capable of giving was another shrug. He pointed to the exit, he needed to leave this situation. He couldn’t think about it anymore and Scout being _right_ there and it only being the two of them made it hard not to.

“Okay uh… all right. But you know you can talk to me about anything and everything, right? So whenever you’re ready to talk about whatever it is, I’ll be here for you, ‘kay?”

This was one thing Pyro _couldn’t_ talk to him about. But he gave him a nod and a thumbs up anyway before leaving. He felt a little better knowing Scout cared for him as a friend at least… he could live with that, right?

 

The closer Valentine’s Day came, the more Pyro thought about asking Scout to be his Valentine. It was dumb, he could ask him out on any day of the year, it didn’t have to be on a silly minor holiday about romance. But the thought and the stress it brought with it refused to leave him. He _wanted_ to do it, he even almost bought a heart shaped box of chocolate from the store in town before his courage failed him again. Scout _couldn’t_ love him in the same way, he just _couldn’t_.

“What’s eating at you? You’ve been sad lately.” Engie asked him one day when he was hanging out in his work shop.

Pyro liked watching him build things, it was relaxing. Why couldn’t he love Scout the same way he loved Engie, as a _friend_? It’d be so much easier and less painful. But no matter how much he would like to, he couldn’t control his feelings, romantic or otherwise. But he _could_ talk to Engie about this since it wasn’t about him and maybe he’d know how to help.

“Valentine’s Day,” he said, speaking loud and slow so he’d be understood through his mask. It was tomorrow too so it was even more on the forefront of Pyro’s thoughts today.

“Oh,” Engie said, perking up a little. “Valentine’s Day, huh? So you got yourself a crush on someone?”

Pyro wouldn’t call it that, it was much deeper and more intense than that. But he nodded anyway, it was close enough. It _had_ started as a crush after all, nothing big, nothing he’d thought would go anywhere. He wished it hadn’t.

“I think I know who it is but… you want to me tell me?”

“Scout,” Pyro said. “What should I do?” Engie was super smart, he’d know what to do, right?

“Ask him to be your Valentine of course,” Engie replied as if that were the most obvious answer. Which in a way it _was_ but…

“He doesn’t like me like that.” And Pyro should be okay with that, friends were _awesome_ , he loved his friends. But… he loved Scout in a different way and wanted Scout to love him the same way even if that was nigh on impossible.

“I ain’t entirely sure what you just said but your tone and posture make it easy to guess. You’re afraid he don’t feel the same and will reject you, right?” Engie paused long enough for Pyro to nod before continuing. “I ain’t an expert on romance or nothing like that but I do know you can’t know that for sure unless you ask him. You don’t even got to do it face to face, you can leave him a note in a card if that’d make it less scary. Come on, I’ll drive you to town and help you pick up a good Valentine’s Day gift for him.”

Pyro still wasn’t sure about this but… he stood and followed Engie out anyway. Maybe a miracle would happen.

***

“Hey Pyro, how’s it going?” Scout said as Pyro approached him for the first time in days. Something was clearly wrong with him but Scout hadn’t wanted to get in his space or pressure him in anyway and thus had let him have his space. Maybe now he finally wanted to talk. Hopefully anyway, Scout hated knowing he was upset and not being able to do anything about it.

Pyro didn’t seem inclined to say anything though as he just stood there, holding something behind his back and fidgeting a little. Before Scout could ask him what was wrong, he pulled whatever it was out and held it towards Scout. It was a heart shaped box, clearly a box of chocolate.

“Thank…” As soon as it was in Scout’s hands, Pyro turned and ran before Scout could finish his ‘thank you’. Scout had never seen him move that fast before.

Scout could easily chase after him and catch up but the mystery of the Valentine’s Day gift was tantalizing. The plastic wrap had been removed, implying that it had been opened. He pulled the lid off, revealing a card lying inside on top of the padding over the chocolates. It had the word ‘I’ followed by big heart, followed by a ‘YOU’ on the cover.

Not wanting to open it where anyone and everyone could pass by and see, Scout closed the box and fled to his room with it. Once safely at his own desk, he put the box atop his closed sketchbook and opened it again to pull out the card. As suspected more writing was on the inside. But that wasn’t all, surrounding the words were a bunch of little doodles of rainbows, lollipops, and unicorns that looked like they doubled as balloons. On the left side a full scene was drawn of a very pink place, pink grass, pink sky and clouds, with lollipop trees(?). Scout and Pyro were depicted in middle having what looked like a tea party. Pyro’s art wasn’t the best but it was clear he’d put his all into it.

Scout hadn’t even read the actual note yet and it was already one of the sweetest things he’d ever received. Once he finally managed to tear his eyes away from the picture, he was pleased to see that Pyro’s handwriting was clear, neat and big, so deciphering it shouldn’t be _too_ hard.

‘ _Dear Scout, I like you a lot, romantically, and I would like it very much if you would be my Valentine and maybe go on a date with me sometime. If you don’t feel the same way, that’s fine, I understand, enjoy the chocolates anyway. XOXO Pyro._ _P.S. Sorry I stole one, I wanted to make sure they tasted good, they do._ ’

Scout tried and failed to contain his grin as he slowly read through it. It was not what he ever would’ve expected from Pyro but it was a welcome surprise. Scout couldn’t say he found Pyro attractive since he wore the fireproof suit all the time but physical attraction wasn’t what was most important in a romantic relationship, personality was. And well, Pyro’s personality – when he wasn’t in the midst of battle burning people to death – was lovely. He was sweet, kind, and wonderful. Scout maybe wouldn’t have considered it on his own but the thought of becoming closer to Pyro in that way was appealing. And with how nice this card was – along with the gift of chocolate, one of which _was_ missing – how could Scout possibly turn him down?

***

Pyro pace and paced, regretting everything. _Surely,_ he’d gone too far with the note, X’s and O’ meant hugs and kisses, they weren’t a couple yet – and probably never would be – so he shouldn’t have included them. And he’d drawn the happy place, one of the main reasons why Scout thought he was insane, what had he been _thinking_ including that? He’d ruined everything.

And now he was hiding in Engie’s workshop when Engie wasn’t even here like a coward. Scout would find him eventually though and turn him down. Or maybe… he wouldn’t care enough to even do _that_ , maybe he’d just ignore it and pretend it never happened. Or maybe… maybe… he’d be too afraid to turn him down, afraid that Pyro might hurt him because he was an ‘insane freak’ and would thus never talk to Pyro again.

Pyro whimpered, lifting his hands to either side of his head as if to block his ears. He couldn’t with the mask on but even if he could it wouldn’t do anything to block out his thoughts. He could run from them though, run and set something on fire, get lost in the rainbows and happy place.

Exiting Engie’s workshop, he almost ran right into Scout. It was too late to run.

“Pyro, I figured you be here since you weren’t anywhere else.” Scout greeted him with a smile. He wasn’t afraid though so that latter horrible scenario Pyro’s brain had supplied him with wasn’t the case. … Of _course_ it wasn’t, Scout had stopped being afraid of Pyro a long time ago now, they’d been good friends and had been working together as a team for a while. Pyro _knew_ that, how could he have doubted Scout so much?

“So uh… I got your note, card thing,” Scout continued, oblivious to Pyro’s roiling emotions – an upside to wearing a physical mask all the time was one didn’t have to put any effort into effectively hiding their emotions. Meaning when Scout turned Pyro down, he wouldn’t know just how sad that made Pyro. “And well… yes, I’d like to be your Valentine and uh… go on a date with you.”

Pyro took a small step back. Had he heard the right? “Really?”

“I’m not sure what you just said but uh… I mean it, I really do.” Scout was blushing as he fidgeted in place, looking at Pyro, meeting his eyes as best he could with the mask there. He meant it, he really, seriously meant it.

Pyro hugged him. He jerked a little in surprise but was soon returning the hug. It wasn’t the first time Pyro had hugged him but it was the most wonderful and quickly turned into the longest.

Unfortunately, the did eventually have to part. Pyro clapped his hands with joy and relief once they did so. All that time he’d spent worrying over nothing, typical. He didn’t care anymore though, he loved Scout and he was happy they were together.

The best part was, Scout looked happy too. “So now that we’re boyfriends,” (Pyro clapped again at the use of that word, he _never_ would’ve thought the word would apply to him) “what did you have in mind for that date?”

“Uh… I don’t know.” Pyro hadn’t considered that part, he’d been too convinced Scout would decline his offer for a date. “Didn’t think that far ahead, sorry.”

“Nah, that’s fine. We can figure it out together. I guess dinner’s not really an option because of the whole… thing.” He made a gesture around his face, clearly referring the fact that Pyro couldn’t take off his mask when people were around and therefore, he couldn’t eat around other people. Was that… going to cause problems for their new relationship status? “But dinner dates are way too overdone these days anyway. How ‘bout we just go to town and do whatever, huh? I’m sure we’ll find something date-like to do once we’re there.”

“Sounds good.” Pyro nodded his agreement, also giving Scout a thumb’s up. He could use a walk around town to unwind from the enormous stress he’d just been feeling followed the immense relief and joy from all this. It was some rather intense emotional whiplash.

“Okay, let’s go borrow the car then unless someone else already took it out.”

As they walked, Pyro reached down and took hold of Scout’s hand. And Scout _let_ him, only pausing a little bit before giving Pyro’s hand a light squeeze. Even if they didn’t get to got out on a date in town today, Pyro didn’t care. He was happy and more than satisfied with just this right now.


End file.
